Prosthodontic restorative systems and techniques are well-known in the prior art. For partially or fully edentulous patients, a dental implant fixture is implanted in a cylindrical bore made in the alveolar ridge crest of a patient's jawbone after the gum tissue has been displaced. The fixture typically includes an internally-threaded cylindrical socket which receives one or more components used for attaching a permanent dental restoration to the fixture. The components typically include an abutment base in the form of a short tubular body having a transverse wall at a first end thereof shaped to mate with the gingival aspect of a transverse surface of the implant fixture. The abutment base has a bore therethrough for receiving an abutment screw used to retain the abutment base to the fixture. A coping is retained in the abutment screw using a coping screw. A dental restoration, in the form of an anatomical overlay, is adapted to be fabricated to the coping. One such system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,298 to Lazzara et al.
The various components of the dental prosthodontic restoration are typically driven and tightened with respect to the implant mixture or each other using a plurality of different drivers, one for each type of component. The prosthodontist manipulates the drivers manually or through the use of an automatic device. One such automatic device is marketed by Nobel Industries Sweden and includes a torque control mechanism to insure that components are tightened to their optimum torque.
Precise and complete tightening of the components in a restoration is often difficult to achieve manually. Thus, the components often loosen and back-out of their fittings, requiring repeated office visits for retightening. While automatic devices generally overcome this problem, such devices are costly and somewhat cumbersome to use. Moreover, the accuracy of such devices will degrade over time by wear, tear and adverse effects of sterilization.
There is therefore a need to provide a new system for driving components used in a dental prosthodontic restoration that overcomes these and other problems of the prior art.